Blame it on the Pumpkin Crumble Cake. I went to make my favorite fall pumpkin treat (because I’m not a fan of pumpkin pie) and I didn’t have a yellow cake mix to top it with. But, then I thought to myself – There’s got to be a way to make yellow cake mix, and it’s got to be better than the boxed stuff.

And it was!

By the way, have you ever read the side of a cake mix box?? Yikes! Making it myself made me feel a whole lot better about eating pumpkin crumble cake, let me tell ya!

I doubled this recipe and measured up all of the ingredients into plastic zippy bags. I used one to top my pumpkin crumble cake and saved the other to make as a regular cake at a later date.

{Please, welcome my friend Samantha from Inspired by Lucile to the blog today! She’s another mom of many who knows what it is like to feed a large crew! Today, she’s sharing tips for making breakfast less complicated and more nutritious!}

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We all say this to our children, but we tend to set a poor example and not eat breakfast ourselves. Honestly, it is because we are busy just trying to get everyone ready for the day. That’s how it used to be for us, but after making a few changes we no longer have problems. So here are some Breakfast Ideas for the Busy Family.

How to Plan

The hardest part for me was figuring out what to make. Once that was done the rest happened easily. I asked my kids and my husband what they enjoyed eating for breakfast and then added a few extras. Read more...

You are going to laugh at this, but the last time I made freezer meals I was a newlywed! That’s right – there were 2 of us eating! Once I started having kids, I sort of chickened out when it came to freezer meals. Plus, I was convinced they were going to take up way too much of my precious time and precious freezer space.

A few weeks ago, another blogging homeschool mom of 7 mentioned to me that she had put together an ecourse on how to quickly make Freezer Meals, and I thought – hmmmm…if she can do it with 7, surely I can do it with my brood.

I’m going to start this post by disclosing the fact that talking about money makes me squirm. There are so many nuances to budgets and how people spend money that I find it very difficult to truly compare one family’s cost of groceries to another family’s cost of groceries.

That said, I have been asked time and again to at least try. So, this is me trying.

Do you have a budding photographer in your home? My daughter, Megan, from Diverse Reflections Photography has a special resource just for your son or daughter! She has put together a FREE Teen Photographer magazine, with plans to release a summer edition very soon! Click HERE or the graphic below to get your digital copy!

{PS – If you weren’t able to watch the video from yesterday’s email, you can click HERE! I just realized the videos do not embed in emails, and I did not link directly to the video. Sorry about that!}

Convenience foods get a bad rap…with good reason. They aren’t the healthiest thing on the planet, and if ever they do appear in your freezer or pantry, you can be certain it is only because you have hit rock bottom as a mother. Chicken nuggets, frozen pizza, breakfast sandwiches and all their unsavory relatives serve up a dose of guilt to otherwise good moms who find themselves in dire circumstances.

But, what if chicken nuggets actually made me a good mom?

No, I’m not kidding, and I’m not here to pick a food fight.

What if I read another book to my kids because I served chicken nuggets? What if I took my toddler on a walk because I served frozen pizza? What if I played peek-a-boo or jumped on the trampoline or played one more game of tag because I could pop something quick and easy in the oven, or *gasp* – the microwave? Read more...

Not too long ago, I told you how I was making meal planning super easy. One of the tools I started using is the DIY Breakfast Station – an ebook and resources that helps you create several options for your children to get their own breakfasts in the morning. You can also get the DIY Lunch Station ebook that offers the same concept for lunches.

Right now, you can get the DIY Breakfast or DIY Lunch Station combo packs for 50% off! These books are perfect for homeschooling families (and they were written by a homeschool mom!) I have loved knowing my kids have great breakfast options to choose from while I focus on other things in the morning.

Earlier this week, I told you about how I grew up with a father who had lived through the Depression, and how that had made me “naturally” frugal. (read the post here) Today, I want to tell you how his legacy lives on in my family still today.

For those of you wondering, my father passed away in 2007. He was 82 and had Alzheimer’s. I wrote about the process of letting him go in this post. I still miss him terribly.

This law of frugality has stayed exactly the same for our family. The only thing that is different is that we DO use candles year round. (Sorry dad, I’m willing to sacrifice for the simple pleasures.) My husband (who, by the way, is an awfully lot like my dad) is forever going through the house shutting off lights whilst lecturing on the finer points of energy consumption. Read more...

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Just 11 short days after this photo was taken, our 5th child, Emily, died. To read her story click on her picture. To find resources for grieving families, visit The Grieving Mother section of this site.